Free Study Guide for EMS Board Exam
The faculty and fellows of the UCSF EMS/Disaster Fellowship Program met monthly over the past 2 years to to write a study guide for for the EMS Medical Board exam based on the National Association of EMS Physician’s (NAEMSP) seminal textbook Emergency Medical Services: Clinical Practice and Systems Oversight [Amazon link] (Kendall Hunt Publishers, David C Cone, Robert E O’Connor and Raymond L Fowler, Series Editors, 2009). We condensed approximately 1,800 pages into 69 pages with a simple format: summary of material and take home messages to help improve our EMS system. [+]
MEdIC: The Case of the Facebook Faceplant – Expert and Community Response
On September 27th we posted the second case of the MEdIC (Medical Education In Cases) series facilitated by Dr. Brent Thoma (@BoringEM) and me (@TChanMD). The Case of the Facebook Faceplant involved a “resident at risk” who lashed out on Facebook about an experience with a nurse. Our readers were thrust into the role of a supervising attending physician who sees the post. Once again, we were overwhelmed by the number and quality of responses in the comments and on Twitter. [+]
The Ultimate Consult Service: Emergency Pharmacists
Imagine a consult service located IN the ED. The consultants are some of the friendliest people you’ve met and are there to help you. They tirelessly go out of their way to guide you through hospital protocols, help you with treatments, keep a close eye on your work, and ensure that you and your patients stay out of trouble. Not only are these consultants helpful to you, but also your residents, mid-levels, nurses, and the admitting teams. Everything they know, they teach you – and some are very active in FOAMed and emergency medicine research. [+]
September 2013 Update: Expert Peer Reviewed posts
It’s been a month since we started adding expert peer reviews to our blog posts, and we have had a flurry of engaging conversation surrounding the new process. During this time we have worked to develop a sustainable peer review process. In fact there are two ongoing expert peer-review processes: Clinical articles: There have been 10 clinical articles thus far expert peer reviewed on a post-publication basis. See list below. MEdIC series: Dr. Teresa Chan and Dr. Brent Thoma host this monthly series on challenging educational cases with initial posited questions, followed by a summary review which includes expert input (added [+]
10 Tips for Approaching Abdominal Pain in the Elderly
After seeing your fifth young patient of the day with chronic pelvic pain, constipation, and irritable bowel syndrome, it is easy to be lulled into the mindset that abdominal pain is nothing to worry about. Not so with the elderly. These 10 tips will help focus your approach to atraumatic abdominal pain in older adults and explain why presentations are frequently subtle and diagnoses challenging. [+]
Patwari Academy videos: Evidence Based Medicine (part 1)
Across the medical profession, an essential skill is to be able to understand and interpret original research publications to guide your evidence-based practices. Dr. Rahul Patwari reviews the basics of statistics, specifically sensitivity and specificity, predictive values, probability, and the tradeoff between sensitivity and specificity. [+]
MEdIC series: The Case of the Facebook Faceplant
Medical Education has taken social media by storm. Twitter, Facebook, the Blogosphere… Medical Educators have used these often misused and misinterpreted forms of social interaction to share resources and educate. However, social media is quickly merging our private and public personae. As educators, we must be savvy and up-to-date regarding our learners’ social media usage, since the worlds can often collide. This week we present the case of Greg, a junior faculty member and attending emergency physician, who is experiencing a social media-mediated quandary. [+]
Trick of the Trade: EMLA for Lumbar Punctures
A 9 year-old patient presents with a headache and fever after swimming, along with subjective neck stiffness. Meningitis was of concern especially because the serum WBC count was 25,000 and other inflammatory markers were elevated. Because the patient’s mother had an unpleasant experience with an epidural during childbirth, she adamantly opposed the idea of a lumbar puncture (LP). [+]
Need your valued input: Funding stream strategy for ALiEM
Over the past 4+ years, ALiEM has grown to be an exciting educational blog which focuses on the clinical, educational, and academic aspects of emergency medicine. It has far exceeded any of my expectations and has been an incredibly valuable and rewarding experience for me personally. Since its inception, the site has transitioned from a single-author site to a site with a superstar team of authors who cover a diverse range of clinical (e.g. cardiovascular, critical care, geriatric EM, pharmacology) and educational (book club, MEdiC series, educational pedagogies) content as well as an expert peer-review system. As now the blog’s [+]
Survey: Share lessons from your mentor
Mentorship is critical to the success of people throughout one’s career with regards to productivity, career satisfaction, and professional development. Often one has several mentors who each serve unique purposes such as doing research, writing grants, balance work-life issues, and navigation departmental politics. Being a mentor is often a thankless job. In this survey, thank your mentor by sharing lessons that you have learned from him/her. Great pearls are worth sharing. [+]